Report: Time Warner Cable to offer live TV viewing through Apple TV

TWC subscribers will be able to watch live TV through Apple's set-top box.

Apple TV users who are also Time Warner Cable subscribers may soon have something new to watch on their little black boxes. According to Bloomberg, Apple and Time Warner are hammering out a deal that would allow current TWC subscribers to watch live TV on Apple's set-top box.

Unfortunately, as with so many of these deals, the Apple TV service appears to be a value-add for existing Time Warner customers rather than a separate subscription service. Individual cable networks like HBO and ESPN offer similar access to their programming—you can watch on a tablet or set-top box if you want, but only if you already subscribe to the channels through your cable provider. Those waiting on a true Internet-based alternative to traditional cable companies will have to keep on waiting.

Well this does give some unity. One set-top box to rule them all. Makes it easier to unify all of one's sources. The only thing I noticed with the TWC app is not all the channels are available so you'll still need all the rest for awhile.

Whence goes Time Warner, so goeth Cox and Comcast? Here's to hoping. If so, the solution to watching my local sports teams plus awards shows the way I want will be solved.

Steve Jobs said he finally cracked it. Is this it? A simple to run box and then just have Apple negotiate your ass off until everyone with a stake falls inline behind the device? That's what happened to iTunes. I think Apple has done a bunch of programming work to make this happen. The truly hard part is the contracts to allow this to happen.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

I can go on with this forever, there are so many problems.

Oh, and we've been able to watch TW from our iPads for quite some while, as long as we also have their Internet service, which I don't.

But there are apps to watch shows from a number of channels that haven't needed any subs for any cable network for the iPad (and iPhone, or course). But it looks as though the cable networks are tightening down on that as well.

I feel the same way about this as I do about the upcoming Xbox/TWC integration: WTF is the point?

Anyone who subscribes to TWC and has used their iphone/ipad app should already realize that whatever they come up with will add no value whatsoever to your TV-watching life. I wish this weren't true, and that they could make something that I found genuinely useful or entertaining, but alas.

To avoid paying a monthly cable box rental fee, at the expense of a bandwidth cap.

Maybe, maybe not. Supposedly when Comcast allowed streaming through the Xbox, it was set up not to count towards your cap.

It wouldn't surprise me if this didn't count towards cap. And why should it? The primary purpose of the cap isn't network congestion, or they'd have implemented caps a decade ago. The main purpose of the cap is to lock you into cable TV and keep you from dumping them for a 100% streaming solution (or at least, lock you in to their own, expensive streaming solution.)

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

Well their DVR isn't the best, I'll give you that, but in case you didn't know it, you can expand the capacity of the DVR. There is an eSATA port on most of their DVRs that let you plug in an external drive.

Thank jeebuz. The shitty Samsung cable box that TW gave is getting replaced asap. That thing is slow as molasses and the remote sucks balls.

I also have a terrible Samsung box from TW. That thing likes to perform upgrades around 9PM, right in the middle of Primetime TV. At least my old Cisco and Moto boxes had the courtesy of waiting until 2am to perform upgrades. The old crappy Moto box was much more dependable than the Samsung, which says a lot about how truely horrible my Samsung box is.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

Well their DVR isn't the best, I'll give you that, but in case you didn't know it, you can expand the capacity of the DVR. There is an eSATA port on most of their DVRs that let you plug in an external drive.

There's already a Time Warner Cable app in the App Store that lets you watch TV channels on your iPhone or iPad, as long as (i) TWC is both your cable and internet provider and (ii) you are on your home network (it doesn't let you roam the way HBO GO does). I'm sure this is just the same thing tweaked to run on AppleTV. It almost certainly doesn't otherwise turn AppleTV into a full-fledged cable box (i.e. no DVR).

EDIT: Although it might let you control your DVR, the way the mobile app does, but I'm not sure how useful that is in the case of AppleTV.

EDIT2: To further clarify, the mobile app lets you set programs to record on your DVR. It doesn't stream to your iPhone/iPad.

I wonder if TWC's servers will backend any kind of DVR functionality, or on demand. Without that, it seems like it may be of limited utility. I can't stand being in a hotel and not having the ability to pause or fast forward through commercials.

Whence goes Time Warner, so goeth Cox and Comcast? Here's to hoping. If so, the solution to watching my local sports teams plus awards shows the way I want will be solved.

Steve Jobs said he finally cracked it. Is this it? A simple to run box and then just have Apple negotiate your ass off until everyone with a stake falls inline behind the device? That's what happened to iTunes. I think Apple has done a bunch of programming work to make this happen. The truly hard part is the contracts to allow this to happen.

If I were a betting man, i'd say Jobs was talking through his back passage when he said he'd planned the next 5 years out. Since his death, things have been anything but smooth sailing. These plans would have been in place well before his death, and we would have seen the fruits already. And yes, I read his biography - which was fascinating.

There's already a Time Warner Cable app in the App Store that lets you watch TV channels on your iPhone or iPad, as long as (i) TWC is both your cable and internet provider and (ii) you are on your home network (it doesn't let you roam the way HBO GO does). I'm sure this is just the same thing tweaked to run on AppleTV. It almost certainly doesn't otherwise turn AppleTV into a full-fledged cable box (i.e. no DVR).

EDIT: Although it might let you control your DVR, the way the mobile app does, but I'm not sure how useful that is in the case of AppleTV.

EDIT2: To further clarify, the mobile app lets you set programs to record on your DVR. It doesn't stream to your iPhone/iPad.

You can watch a few channels if you are not on your home network (BBC America is the only one I have watched).

There's already a Time Warner Cable app in the App Store that lets you watch TV channels on your iPhone or iPad, as long as (i) TWC is both your cable and internet provider and (ii) you are on your home network (it doesn't let you roam the way HBO GO does). I'm sure this is just the same thing tweaked to run on AppleTV. It almost certainly doesn't otherwise turn AppleTV into a full-fledged cable box (i.e. no DVR).

EDIT: Although it might let you control your DVR, the way the mobile app does, but I'm not sure how useful that is in the case of AppleTV.

EDIT2: To further clarify, the mobile app lets you set programs to record on your DVR. It doesn't stream to your iPhone/iPad.

You can watch a few channels if you are not on your home network (BBC America is the only one I have watched).

In my defense, that seems to be relatively new. But it's good to know, since I travel a lot and often times the channel choices at the hotel suck.

Also, I should have pointed out that the app does have "On Demand", so the AppleTV app probably will, also. I have never checked to see if the choices are the same as on the set top box, though.

I suspect that the terms of the cable companies' contracts with channels forbid them from streaming to non-cable customers. If I was HBO, I would want to control the money from streaming my content, not allow the cable companies to have it.

But I also suspect these contracts will start getting rewritten. In the long term, the cable companies have got to want to get into their competitors' regions. And it would be good for consumers to be able to get content from a different company than their carrier.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

I can go on with this forever, there are so many problems.

Oh, and we've been able to watch TW from our iPads for quite some while, as long as we also have their Internet service, which I don't.

But there are apps to watch shows from a number of channels that haven't needed any subs for any cable network for the iPad (and iPhone, or course). But it looks as though the cable networks are tightening down on that as well.

But the apple tv isn't a DVR, right? Sure DVR stuff sucks and we all hate them but this isn't a solution when we still have to subscribe to cable.

I'd drop fios in a heartbeat (and pay an ETF) if comcast had a great (not shitty) apple tv functionality. the drv fees would make it worthwhile within a couple years max.

I paid etf once to ditch verizon to get an iPhone...of course if it's xbox lame (gold required to use netflix) then I'll give it a pass. but the prospect of a standardized purchased cable box is very exciting.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

That's a reason to cancel your Warner Cable subscription entirely. It's not a good reason to use your AppleTV as dumb cable tuner.

If you wanted to go that route, you could just use a dumb cable tuner to begin with.

LiveTV is a serious throwback in any form. Adding a fruity logo doesn't help that.

Some people have Tvs in rooms they rarely use and don't want to pay the rental fee on a box when mom comes to visit the grandkids.

That's a reason to show up at the FCC with torches and pitchforks demanding that cable not require a stupid box and rental fees to go along with. Adapting to that situation by replacing one abusive cartel with a monopoly wannabe isn't really accomplishing anything.

Now if the AppleTV could be a DVR extender for the TWC PVR, then that would be something. That would be comparable to what's going on with all of the other players in the market.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

That's a reason to cancel your Warner Cable subscription entirely. It's not a good reason to use your AppleTV as dumb cable tuner.

If you wanted to go that route, you could just use a dumb cable tuner to begin with.

LiveTV is a serious throwback in any form. Adding a fruity logo doesn't help that.

"Dumb cable tuners" are in a separate ecosystem, and even though there are bridges, it's still imperfect.

Because often my TW DVR fails to record a show, or series, at all. Or it shows that it is recording, but when we try to watch it, the record bar is grey, showing that it didn't record. Or the box dies, and everything on it is lost. Or you fill the HDD, and there's no way to expand it.

That's a reason to cancel your Warner Cable subscription entirely. It's not a good reason to use your AppleTV as dumb cable tuner.

If you wanted to go that route, you could just use a dumb cable tuner to begin with.

LiveTV is a serious throwback in any form. Adding a fruity logo doesn't help that.

To avoid paying a monthly cable box rental fee, at the expense of a bandwidth cap.

I don't know about cable boxes, but when I found out I could buy my modem from my provider I did it immediately. It cost me $30 for a 30mbps modem, where as rental was $5 a month ... after 6 months it paid for itself and I've had it for about 2 1/2 years.

This deal here is just a crutch to keep existing users. I hate to sound like one of "those people", but there is nothing that would make me go back to cable. It seems like the more channels they add the less quality there is to watch.

Our cable company, Insight Communications, recently got eaten by TWC, and I think we're still in the transition period of being able to access their services. However, according to our account, we're not eligible for this stuff because we only have the basic cable package (bottom tier). And, here I was hoping that things might not be so bad. First blood...

Whence goes Time Warner, so goeth Cox and Comcast? Here's to hoping. If so, the solution to watching my local sports teams plus awards shows the way I want will be solved.

Steve Jobs said he finally cracked it. Is this it? A simple to run box and then just have Apple negotiate your ass off until everyone with a stake falls inline behind the device? That's what happened to iTunes. I think Apple has done a bunch of programming work to make this happen. The truly hard part is the contracts to allow this to happen.

If I were a betting man, i'd say Jobs was talking through his back passage when he said he'd planned the next 5 years out. Since his death, things have been anything but smooth sailing. These plans would have been in place well before his death, and we would have seen the fruits already. And yes, I read his biography - which was fascinating.

I think you got down voted bc you are simplifying things.

The Movie/TV/Content industry is very resistant to change. Cable providers didn't offer DVRs until years after TiVo and RePlayTV.

The Cable and Hollywood companies saw what happened to the music industry via iTunes and other services, and don't want to lose their current power.

The content companies have complex multi year contracts for worldwide distribution. I could write 20 pages on that from first hand experience.

Jobs wasn't talking out of his backside, he figured out one of several good ways to improve distribution. The industry is not willing to work this way yet. The studios are testing their own platforms like UltraViolet etc...

Ultraviolet, how's that working?

Just this week Apple hired a guy from Hulu to be one of their content negotiators.

It's not easy to negotiate these media deals. The music industry did it fast bc napster, limewire, etc.. were destroying their industry.

The TV/Cable/Movie industries want to retain all of their power. The internet backbone and cable providers are all fighting with Netflix. They don't want subscribers who pay Netflix $8 a month to drop their cable TV subscriptions from $100 to $60 a month. At the same time, the cable companies didn't do anything to innovate or create new services until they were challenged by Netflix and reductions and subscriber fees.

So you can see why Apple, Google, MS, Intel, or anyone else is having a difficult time negotiating with the contentment and cable companies.

If TWC doesn't allow the streaming to roam away from the customer's home network I don't see much value added to the function. Sure, it may save some money for customers who don't have two+ cable boxes and want to watch cable in various rooms at home but I am sure that number is quite small as people who want to do that already went ahead and already got the cable boxes set up by now.

It seems like a token gesture but I wouldn't call it a huge step forward for customers.

Sounds like a great idea. But the real problem with TWC in New York City* is that their internet service is abysmal. I've had intermittent internet outages since December 2012 (lasting from an hour to days) due a weak signal that causes the modem to disconnect. The problem was eventually escalated to "tier 3" support and to TWC's client relations, but only after multiple complaints to tech support (well over 200 calls), several visits from field technicians who were beyond the real of stupidity (and in one case, clearly stoned), several FCC complaints and threats of legal action. Eventually they addressed the problem by replacing a failing network node amplifier, but I still have intermittent outages.

That being said: what good is streaming TWC content through the AppleTV if their internet service is unreliable?

*Note: TWC has a complete monopoly over Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn; there are no other choices other than FIOS or DSL, neither of which are available in my neighborhood.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.